Names carry a lot of meaning and weight in our society and can change throughout our lives as we too change.  The name Kristen, that's me, carries meaning in our society and to me.  The name Kristen in Christianity means "follower of Christ" and has English and Irish origins.  When my mother was choosing my name, she purposefully chose a name with a Christian meaning and a name that was primarily English.  My name has influenced me in how I have identified myself as someone of English descent and categorizes me as an American.  The name is Kristen has set me apart in that the spelling of Kristen is most commonly Kristin or even Christine, which do not have the Christian meanings attached.  The spelling of my name is important because it carries meaning in my religion and is unique from the more common spelling.

Anna Quindlen's "Life in the 30's" discusses how women not changing their name when they get married has an impact on their standing as part of the family.  I think that everyone has moments where they identify themselves differently than the opinions of a large group because everyone has different experiences that change their perspectives.  For me, being a part of a volunteer group at my youth group was a unique experience that challenged my beliefs.  From a popular vote, the group decided that we would volunteer at Habitat for Humanity instead of the Ronald McDonald house like I wanted.  In my opinion helping children, especially sick children and their families, is the most rewarding and valuable volunteering that you can do.  Habitat for Humanity is an excellent program for helping the economically disadvantaged but my passion is with children.  My opinion differed from that of most of the group and brought up the question of whether or not I should continue volunteering for the group or should volunteer by myself.

I will admit that I felt incredibly guilty for considering quitting a volunteer group because of the type of volunteer work that we would do.  However, my selfish tendencies to do what I wanted to do were present because I wasn't terribly interested in Habitat for Humanity, I am not good at building or working with power-tools.  This feeling made me stick out in the group because everyone else was thrilled for that volunteer work.  Even though I wasn't excited about building houses, I still wanted to feel as part of the group as every person wants to belong and tried to become passionate about the volunteering.  This need to fit into a group was so strong that I stayed in the volunteer group and volunteered at the Ronald McDonald House later.  What we believe can sometimes be different than what a group holds as a passion and we have to choose whether we will stick with our passions or change according to groups.